I have no point of comparison for this topic, so was hoping someone could help me out.

In the 00's I purchased (second hand) 2 iBooks and 1 Powerbook, all with the (in)famous "Yoyo" power adapters.

1 of them worked well. 1 was flakey, and 1 was dead. And I was not alone - the yoyo was well known for the cable failing at the "connector" end, which was clearly what was wrong with my dead yoyo and the cause of the flakeyness of the other one.

Then... a few years later I picked up a MacBookPro, which came with a "T" original Magsafe. "Great idea!" I thought, thinking of all the times I'd nearly destroyed the previous laptops due to the power cable... Only, within... well, about... you know... 3 years... the connector was no longer charging. So I purchased the replacement "L" shaped Magsafe... "Great idea!" I thought - at least this time the cable isn't forced to stick straight out from the device, thus almost always causing unnecessary strain! But in fairly short order that too died, and needing to be replaced.

Well, after the 2nd replacement died, the MacBookPro basically sat around in disuse, because I wasn't at all eager to buy another charger for more than $100... knowing that I'd be back again before too long.

This week however, thanks to the desire to view Netflix, I shelled out $29 for a Chinese knock-off "L" charger. Hopefully the house will not be burned to the ground, but sorry Apple - I couldn't sanction purchasing another of your chargers for the price you expect us to pay for something that does not last close to the life of the product it is charging.

Oh, yeah, so - are non-Apple chargers just as bad? Does the MagSafe2 do a better job?

cheers

cosmic

PS Netflix is a goer on the MBP 2.23Ghz C2D! But was a dud on the Mini 1.8Ghz C2D...

PPS They haven't impressed me with the lightning connector either, as noted in a previous post - all of mine have char marks on the 4/5 pin, presumably because one of my i-devices has a connector that doesn't quite mate with the cables.

PPPS All possibly moot soon as Apple appears to be heading to wireless charging.

Apple ended up doing a global recall on those yoyo chargers. They would send out a replacement and you were supposed to return the yoyo. I just took the replacement and didn't bother sending the yo yo back.

These days aren't Apple chargers supposed to be very good, if expensive, which is why there are so many combustible knockoffs?